Next Sequel Canned via Twitter: 'Zoolander 2'? (UPDATED)

A few days after Adam McKay revealed on Twitter that plans for Anchorman 2 have been canceled by Paramount, Ben Stillersent out another Tweet in which he placed Zoolander 2in the same boat. Here's the exact message: "Ron Burgandy and Derek Zoolander looking to appear in sequels. Both men are destitute, without means or intellect to fund their own comebacks." Zoolander 2 was also being set up at Paramount, so it would appear the studio is either having a hard time justifying the worth of late follow-ups to some of the biggest cult comedies of the last decade or they just wanted to see what happens when two of the biggest egos in film are crushed simultaneously (I mean the characters, of course, not the stars).

Don't start writing your "eugoogoly" for the Zoolanderfranchise just yet, though. Stiller is admitting to funding problems, but that doesn't mean the thing is completely dead. If Paramount doesn't want it, though, maybe some other studio or production company can come around and see the value in the property. Unfortunately, as The Playlist points out, just as Anchorman 2 can't be taken to another studio because Paramount owns it, the same is somewhat true for this sequel. Paramount could sell the rights to someone else, but that might be too costly. As addressed by our own Zoolander-loving Monika (she discussed the original in a recent Cinematical Movie Club installment, by the way) back when Z2 was officially announced, the first film didn't do so well at the box office. And even if many of us have watched and watched and watched Zoolander on TV or the DVD we got at Target on sale for less than $10, cult comedies just don't seem lucrative.